Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Paternalism and the alleviation of poverty

Contents:

Author Info

  • Jesurun-Clements, Nancy
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    Typically the tools available for redistribution are price subsidies and direct cash transfers. Conventional economic theory indicates that the efficiency loss is minimized if cash transfers are used instead of price subsidies. But in almost all economies, including advanced economies, price subsidies are implemented and cash transfers are seldom used. The author argues that taxpayers enjoy the poorer citizen's specific consumption package more than improving the poorer citizen's general economic welfare. Her objective is to identify the conditions under which price subsidies represent a more efficient way of alleviating poverty than cash payments, given taxpayers'paternalistic preferences. She concludes that when the taxpayers'prevalent behavior is paternalism, and taxpayers have more weight in society, the option for redistribution would be to target price subsidies to the poor. This brings about a greater improvement in overall social welfare and happier taxpayers than any other policy. With this solution, the poor are somewhat better off, even though they would rather receive cash transfers, which would represent the same financial cost to the economy.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1992/01/01/000009265_3961002075124/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 822.

    as in new window
    Length:
    Date of creation: 31 Jan 1992
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:822

    Contact details of provider:
    Postal: 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433
    Phone: (202) 477-1234
    Email:
    Web page: http://www.worldbank.org/
    More information through EDIRC

    Related research

    Keywords: Safety Nets and Transfers; Services&Transfers to Poor; Rural Poverty Reduction; Economic Theory&Research; Environmental Economics&Policies;

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Kanbur, R. & Keen, M. & Tuomala, M., 1990. "Optimal Non-Linear Income Taxation for the Alleviation of Income Poverty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 368, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Besley, Timothy J & Kanbur, S M Ravi, 1988. "Food Subsidies and Poverty Alleviation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(392), pages 701-19, September.
    3. S. Q. Lemche, 1986. "Remarks on Non-paternalism and the Second Theorem of Welfare Economics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 19(2), pages 270-80, May.
    4. Diamond, Peter A & Mirrlees, James A, 1973. "Aggregate Production with Consumption Externalities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 1-24, February.
    5. Burtless, Gary, 1990. "The Economist's Lament: Public Assistance in America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 57-78, Winter.
    6. Andreoni, James, 1989. "Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1447-58, December.
    7. Schall, Lawrence D, 1972. "Interdependent Utilities and Pareto Optimality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 19-24, February.
    8. Dorfman, Robert, 1975. "Note on a Common Mistake in Welfare Economics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(4), pages 863-64, August.
    9. Robert Holzmann, 1990. "The Welfare Effects of Public Expenditure Programs Reconsidered," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 37(2), pages 338-359, June.
    10. Hochman, Harold M & Rodgers, James D, 1969. "Pareto Optimal Redistribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(4), pages 542-57, Part I Se.
    11. Rader, Trout, 1980. "The second theorem of welfare economics when utilities are interdependent," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 420-424, December.
    12. G. C. Archibald & David Donaldson, 1976. "Non-Paternalism and the Basic Theorems of Welfare Economics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 9(3), pages 492-507, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:822

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Roula I. Yazigi).

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.